1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of metal removal tools and, in particular, to a device to peel off layers of a laminated multilayer shim.
2. Description of Related Art
Multilayer laminated shims are used in a wide variety of applications to eliminate unwanted movement between joined parts do to tolerance discrepancies. Their primary advantage is that shims of different thickness' need not be shocked. Furthermore, the time consuming task of assembling a multiple number of shims of different thickness is no longer required. One need only measure the gab that needs to be filled, and thereafter peel off the layers of the laminated shim tell the proper thickness is obtained. This was typically accomplished by prying each layer off with a sharp edged knife or the like. However with large shims, the use of a knife without proper support can cause the laminated shim to be bent out of shape. Quite often, too many layers were removed making the shim unusable.
There are devices available for removing thin wafers from surfaces. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,843 Spatula For Separation Of Thinned Wafer From Mounting Carrier by Bhola De, et al. In this device, a brittle wafer which is mounted on a supporting member is separated there from be means of a spatula like blade that is slidably mounted on a plate. A hand driven screw type drive is used to move the spatula into the wafer separating it from the support member. However, this device provides no means to adjust the height of the wafer in relationship to the spatula. Thus it could not be used to remove variable number of layers from a laminated shim by peeling.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,546 Apparatus For Peeling Semiconductor Substrate by Nobuo Shiga discloses an apparatus for peeling a semiconductor substrate from a reinforcing plate. The substrate is pushed in a direction parallel to the bonding surface until it shears away from the reinforcing plate. This device could not be used with a multilayer shim because the individual layers are so thin that they would bundle up and rip apart leaving portions still laminated in place. In addition, there is no means to vary the number of layers of shim to be removed.
Thus, it is a primary object of the invention to provide to provide a device to remove a precise number of layers from a laminated shim.
It is another primary object of the invention to provide a device to remove a precise number of layers from a laminated shim, wherein the number of layers to be removed can be adjusted.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a device to remove a precise number of layers from a laminated shim, wherein the number of layers to be removed can be adjusted, while providing support for the remaining layers of the shim.